This is functionally stupid. Can’t fit much and stuff might fall out into your frame, looks annoying to get shit back in there and to take shit out too. Surely that cover will be the first thing to break (or be the first thing you lose).
Surly Grappler is legit a MTB with drop bars (and it has a seatpost dropper too).
Canyon Grizl Trail features a dropper seatpost and front suspension! Really considered this but ultimately it doesn’t come in my size and as much as I love black/white/grey things the colour just wasn’t working out for me (and I figure since I’m in a position to buy new I may as well choose a colour I like!).
When looking at a modern road bike I started to let go of wanting a race bike despite loving the aggressive looks, stance, acceleration, lightness and how tight everything is because of the bike geometry. Much like motorbikes where I’m much more comfortable upright on a bobber/cafe style bike than the ‘lying down’ feeling you get on a road bike I just feel so much more at home in a more upright position (it’s so much more playful!) so I started looking at endurance bikes. Basically road bikes with a more relaxed geometry designer for more comfort over longer rides.
I almost pulled the trigger on a Canyon Endurance, but man Canyon have made some really questionable design decisions I couldn’t see past. That storage cutout on the top tube is functionally retarded (no doubt about it stuff would end up rattling in there or worse yet fall out and get lost in your frame somewhere!) and it looks tacky AF. Like the back battery lid of a TV remote control! It makes me feel that bikes these days aren’t meant to last. I have little doubt that in 20+ years from now all of these bikes will be sold with a big hole on the top tube as previous owners lost their little covers.
I like Surly bikes, but have never loved the look of them (we used to sell them at MC Cyclery). I think geo wise this bike would be super fun but that HUGE headtube will just forever look ugly to me (IMHO small bikes look way better than XXL bikes!) and at $3K with low spec parts I think I’d rather build my own Frankenstein.